LONG BLOG

It seems there's always more to learn about your fellow Dtoiders. In addition to the new meat coming out of the word work to post theirs, a lot of people who have done the top 10 lists are also returning for 10 more things. So why not? You've read 10 things about Strider. Now read about 10 more things about Strider!

1. Due to our long distance relationship, me and my girlfriend make a date every month.It's tough being in a long distance relationship. Zodiac Eclipse can probably attest to that. But other times I think to myself at least it's not as far away as her example. We all probably know at least one military couple, so those situations must be worse. At least I can drive to my girlfriend but the once a month frequency is due to the cost.

The drive to see my girlfriend of six years is four hours long. Approximately 2 hours through classic Californian highway arteries through Los Angeles and another two hours northbound on the 5, cutting through the Santa Clarita valley before being dumped like a log ride into the massive flats of the Central Valley like Bakersfield and Delano. At first, the whole ordeal was exhausting but eventually I gained a routine that makes the drive seem short(in retrospect).

I always take a rest stop halfway through, usually somewhere in the valley. And the years I've spent driving up and down this 220 mile marathon has really opened up my taste in podcasts. Listening to podcasts is easily what keeps my sanity on the drives.

2. We've been together for six yearsI mentioned this earlier but I've heard a range of answers to me saying that we've been together for six years, from what're you waiting for to what's wrong with you? I've mentioned a few times in my Striderisms that we're simply not independent enough to be able to afford housing together, let alone jobs we can apply for that'd work in such a scenario. It's hard enough in this economy to find a job but two jobs that line up for two people? We're closer to finding jobs relatively closer and simply reducing the time to see each other. Anything can improve a four hour drive.

So what have we been through together in six years? We've both been to each others' college graduations, she's gone through two teaching gigs, I've gone through probably over four different part-time jobs, we've been to places like the Santa Monica pier, Little Tokyo, Disneyland, several different zoos, a couple of media events, she's taught English in South Korea for a year, inadvertently eaten at several historic locations, and we've had countless fights. But we're still together and love dreaming up of different child names (I'm partial to Olivia or Nico for a girl).

3. I have a black belt and quirky immunity related to thatI attribute my adult confidence and general transition away from being an awkward, shy teenager mainly to learning hapkido during my high school years. I was probably at the peak of my health due to my regular exercise and practice. I could leap over eight to nine crouching adults and my legs became finely tuned whips. Like riding a bicycle, you never really forget how to get that snapping sound from the perfect kick.

Between practice I also learned a degree of Brazilian jujitsu due to my master being proficient with both. If there's one thing you need to know about jujitsu, its that it teaches you the weak points in the human body and just how stupid whatever god was at designing us. If I were to use a joint lock to make a point in public, it'd be the simple wrist lock. Your wrist can only go in a certain direction so far before you're just trying to force it out of its joints. I, however, have freakishly flexible hands. Double jointed thumbs, rubbery finger joints, and a wrist that gives me a very high tolerance for extreme range. The wrist lock isn't a complicated move but while I generally win our stupider arguments with it (no, I won't play that new mobile game you found), she can't get me to tap out when she does it to me. Any attempt to exploit the mechanical weakness of my wrist generally ends with me yawning and maybe having a small grimace on my face.

4. This year was my second anniversary of working at DisneylandCalifornia Adventure to be exact but it's been a big thrill ride it has. I've dealt with entitled jerkbags, adorable babies, lost children, lazy co-workers, remarkable co-workers, and seen what happens to the park when everything shuts down for the night.

I've picked up specialized skills like working the hat writing machines, stock running merchandise, and just recently how to work the Games of the Boardwalk, effectively satisfying my dream of being a carny. I've checked people into the parks and been a savior for their Disney day, from close friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, friends of my girlfriend, and everything marginally related to me before selling it out. Hell, I sold Oscar De La Hoya women's clothing before. Man are black cards cool to hold.

It's cool and also unglamorous. It's a cool job but ultimately still a job, particularly one near the bottom of the totem pole in terms of skill. When summer picks up, I may work shifts until 2:30am. Grad season is upon us soon and everyone will be praying about getting or avoiding dreaded grad shifts that can take you from 10pm to 5am.

I still have fun though. I get plenty of perks to enjoy the park myself like steep discounts and easy date plans with my girlfriend and in the end, I work at Disneyland, which is apart of a massive global company. There's opportunity somewhere for me here.

5. I'm always up for new kinds of foodEver since The Avengers became a smash hit comic book movie, I've enjoyed a shawarma. You never appreciate food diversity until you realize just how common burgers, Chinese, and Mexican food is. One of my few favorite places closed down, leaving me with just one really nice place to get a good shawarma, Zankou Chicken. But shawarma is just one food. I also appreciate diverse pizza flavors. The kind of pizzas that share menu space with BBQ chicken. I've had Thai peanut pizza, taco pizza, chicken-peach-gorgonzola, and shrimp pizza. I've learned that Peruvian food does not skimp on the potatoes in their dishes. And I love both kinds of curry, soupy and katsu.

Of course, I've already mentioned how late I work. The most common food I grab after work is a burrito combo from Del Taco. A lot of places in the Anaheim hotel district are open 24 hours to accommodate the variety of guests and employees but Del Taco is always convenient. You won't believe how long a drive-through line for Jack in the Box can be at 1:20am. But Del Taco's always speedy for the guy who wants a bite to eat but doesn't want to stay out any longer than they have to.

6. POKEMONI have writer's block right now so the next idea I had to expand upon was to talk about me and Pokemon, so hear it goesWHOOOOOAAAA!

Legendaries have a lot of weight in why I love certain generations and I swear I'm not being topical but Ruby/Sapphire was my favorite generation. Groudon and Kyogre are my favorite legendaries because of the old school nature of their rivalry, land vs sea. My favorite Pokemon is Aggron and when he was announced to have a mega evolution in X/Y, I knew I was building a team centered around him since Aggron himself is rather situational in use. I've had a lot of fun using Mega Aggron as a bulky, hazard setter but Greninja has proved to easily fit many gaps I have with it's solid power as a lead scout and momentum grabber. Other favorites to come to mind are Metagross, Blastoise, Togekiss, and Ursaring. The first shiny I ever caught was a Rhyhorn in Emerald's safari zone.

While it's certainly way easier to construct teams based around an anchor built to sweep and a supporting cast to him it, most of my fun comes from the defensively oriented teams I've constructed using the likes of Trevenant, Mega Aggron, and Tangrowth.

My favorite uber is Kyogre and my favorite move is a toss up between Aqua Jet and Bullet Punch. I also forfeited to Brightside in the first Dtoid XY tournament because I simply did not have any time to dedicate to trying to line up a match with him. If I end up doing the second tournament due to Brightside being burnt out on doing them, I'm making Skype and auto-sign on a pre-requisite to joining.

7. You never forget how to ride a bicycle and I never forget to play a fighting gameEver since the post-modern revival SFIV did in the early 2008 (which is crazy to realize was six years ago), fighting games have been in my blood, sweat, and tears. Blazblue has a special place as being the first game to seriously teach me how to fight at an above-average level. I'm not saying I'd sweep a tournament but I've left Wrenchfarm and SuperMonk4Ever a shell of their former selves at games like Persona 4 Arena and Injustice.

I also had many occasions to improve myself in social circles since I had a circle of friends who were very much into fighting games in college. I watched them play fighters like Brawl on a Japanese Wii and KOF2003 before joining them on addictions to challenge like SFIV and Marvel 3. When I presided as president at Cal State Long Beach's Gaming Club (now the eSports Club I believe), I made a conscious effort to improve the visibility of video games to the primarily tabletop gaming club, with a biased focus in fighting games. I had an unfair advantage in experience but I also enjoyed just sitting back and watching the button mashers play too. I still mourn the loss of Arcade Infinity. In fact, I dragged my girlfriend to come with me to a lot of arcades back in the day.

I also hate the loser's mentality, sometimes known as a gentleman's honor. If you've found quotes and philosophies floating around describing players waiting for their opponent to get up in a fighting game, these are not gentlemen but salty scrubs who'd rather criticize their better's skill than aim to improve themselves. Even in cheap situations like spamming tatsus in the corner and extreme fireball tossing, I never bitch about my opponent and only live to improve my ability to overcome obstacles. If you're not doing something built in and intrinsic to the game like OTGs or air juggles, you obviously don't want to win. You play a fighting game to win, not replace the meta with some scrub mentality.

The fighters I've been profecient with in no particular order asides from series are Jin and Iron Tager (Blazblue); Rufus mainly, with Zangief on the side, and a bit of Dhalsim on the side (Street Fighter IV); Double as a single, occasionally using Cerebella as a doubles partner. I think I'm gonna try Squigly though (Skullgirls); Metaknight in Brawl but if there are objections I just as easily play Diddy Kong (Brawl); I played Falco in Melee though; Green Arrow with a side of Green Lantern (Injustice); Kanji mainly but I delved into Labrys and Akihiko (Persona 4 Arena); Makoto (Third Strike); any team with Spencer as an anchor or even a lead. Team mates I prefer include Nova, Hawkeye, and Frank West. Ironically, I didn't play Strider Hiryu much due to his high risk/reward playstyle (Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3).

8. I only recently got into PC gamingI've never owned really great computers for gaming. Its only been recent where my school gave me a decent laptop capable of running something as simple as even FTL without chugging like a fat guy chasing a shawarma truck.

It's also introduced me to the concept of shopping for insane deals as if it were a stupid game with real life consequences. I already have Super Meat Boy on my 360 but I bought it for my Steam account when it went up for $3 on Steam. It's hard to even find time for all the games I've acquired for my library since I'll either play something I'm familiar with like FTL first or my 3DS. In fact, I haven't touched my 360 in a while for purposes of playing video games. It's been used mostly for streaming lately. Persona 4 Ultimax is looking mighty appealing though.

I've put some hours recently on Rogue Shooter but also Don't Starve since it went on sale a few weeks ago and I'm enjoying that survival bit. I also have sizable hours logged on FTL, Prison Architect, and of course TF2.I heard good things about Fistful of Frags. But since my background in gaming is on console gaming, I don't have the muscle memory to play FPS games on mouse and keyboard really well.

9. You should watch Kill La KillWell you should.

10. My first console was the NES but it really started with the GenesisI got into gaming too late to appreciate the beauties of the NES. But I did get on to experience the power of blast processing with the Sega Genesis. You could say Super Mario World was a turning point for me but Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was my brain turned on and realized the beauty of video games.